Priam Farll is a famous English painter and recluse who has been living in seclusion in various places around the world for nearly 25 years with solely his valet, Henry Leek, for company. In 1905, Farll reluctantly travels to London from the British East Indies to be knighted. However, upon their arrival, Leek becomes very ill. Farll summons Dr. Caswell, but Leek succumbs to double pneumonia and dies. The doctor mistakenly assumes it is Farll who has died, and the publicity-hating artist is only too glad to assume Leek's identity.
When the King himself shows up to pay his respects, Farll learns that "his" body is to be buried at Westminster Abbey. Trying to end the masquerade, he only manages to convince his sole relative, a cousin he has not seen since childhood, that he is a lunatic.
Farll sneaks into the funeral service, but is ejected for causing a commotion and is only saved from arrest by the arrival of Alice Chalice, a widow with whom Leek had been corresponding. It turns out that Alice had applied to a marriage bureau and had been put in touch with Leek. Since the photograph she was given shows both Leek and Farll, she too assumes that Farll is Leek. Impressed by her cheerful nature, combined with her practicality and quick thinking, he marries her and settles in Alice's comfortably large home in Putney. They are happy together. Years pass.
One day, Leek's widow, Sara, and three adult sons show up to reclaim their father. Farll is unable to convince her that he is not Leek without giving away his true identity to his wife. Once more, Alice saves her husband through quick thinking, pointing out that the Leeks will be disgraced by having a bigamist as a father and husband. The Leeks hastily depart. Alice herself does not care whether her husband is a bigamist or not.
When Alice's stock dividends are unexpectedly cut off, Farll tries to calm her worries about her mortgage by telling her that he can sell his paintings for thousands of pounds. When Alice remains unconvinced, he takes her to an art dealer to prove it, only to have the man offer him £15 for his work. Farll is outraged and leaves. Later, however, Alice starts selling his paintings without his knowledge.
Clive Oxford, Farll's art dealer, recognizes his work, buys the paintings cheaply, and resells them for an enormous profit. One frequent buyer, Lady Vale, learns that her most recent purchase shows an omnibus that only went into service years after Farll supposedly died, and takes Oxford to court for fraud. Oxford is certain Farll is still alive, tracks him down, and summons him to the trial.
Farll loathes both parties and refuses to cooperate when he is on the stand. Oxford's solicitor, Mr. Pennington, gets Farll's cousin to testify that he has two moles on his upper left chest. Farll refuses to open his shirt, but Alice does it for him, proving his true identity. Afterward, Farll and Alice move back to his tropical home, where he can paint in blissful seclusion.
Nunnally Johnson read the Arnold Bennett book in 1928, and was surprised no one had turned it into a film.[5] As it turned out, Johnson was incorrect. The book had been made into a film twice in the United Kingdom, and by Paramount Pictures in the United States in 1933 under the title His Double Life.[6] According to Johnson's wife, "Holy Matrimony was the picture Nunnally most enjoyed ... it was his favorite-size story, small, and the cockney wife that Gracie Fields played was Nunnally's dream wife."[7]
Rights to the book were purchased by 20th Century Fox in September 1942, and Monty Woolley was immediately cast to star in the picture.[8] On February 2, 1943, Fox announced the Gracie Fields would co-star in the picture and that the title was being changed from its working title of Buried Alive to the more audience-friendly Holy Matrimony.[9] Fox announced on March 29 that Una O'Connor and Eric Blore had been added to the cast as well.[10] The studio also said that Richard Fraser would co-star in the picture,[11] but he appears in a minor part only as a son of Leek.
Principal photography occurred in April and May 1943. As the picture was shooting, Johnson quit his job at Fox to become an independent producer.[12] Internal studio previews of the film were so positive that Fields was offered a full contract at Fox in June 1943.[13]
The motion picture premiered in Los Angeles, California, on August 27, 1943,[14] and in New York City on September 15, 1943.[4]
Reception
Holy Matrimony won high praise at the time of release. Bosley Crowther, writing in The New York Times, called it "a most delightful union between [Monty Woolley] and Gracie Fields", and said it was "a charming picture which is full of sly humor. And John Stahl has directed it with understanding of its smooth wit and satire." He also had strong praise for actors Cregar, O'Connor, Mowbray, and Pangborn.[15]
Later appraisals have also been very positive. Film historian Tony Thomas wrote: "The humor of Holy Matrimony stems not only from the grand performance of Monty Woolley, but also from the offbeat casting of Gracie Fields as the warmhearted wife. ... [The film is] a perfect vehicle for an actor whom nature had already typecast as a crusty highbrow."[17] Geoffrey McNab, a British film critic, called it "brilliantly scripted" in 2000.[18] Historian of LGBT culture Eric Braun said Holy Matrimony was the "most charming yet low-key comedy" of Woolley's career.[19] Film historian Peter Cowie praised Laird Cregar's "distinguished performance ... as the effeminate art dealer Clive Oxford".[20]
Legacy
The film was so successful that Woolley and Fields were reunited again two years later in the motion picture Molly and Me.[17]
The film also spawned a literary legacy. According to Gore Vidal, a subplot in Dawn Powell's novel The Wicked Pavilion is lifted directly from Holy Matrimony.[21]
Laura is a 1944 American film noir produced and directed by Otto Preminger. It stars Gene Tierney, Dana Andrews, and Clifton Webb along with Vincent Price and Judith Anderson. The screenplay by Jay Dratler, Samuel Hoffenstein, and Betty Reinhardt is based on the 1943 novel Laura by Vera Caspary. Laura received five nominations for the Academy Awards, including for Best Director, winning for Best Black and White Cinematography.
The Pied Piper is a 1942 American film in which an Englishman on vacation in France is caught up in the German invasion of that country, and finds himself taking an ever-growing group of children to safety. It stars Monty Woolley, Roddy McDowall and Anne Baxter. The film was adapted by Nunnally Johnson from the 1942 novel of the same name by Nevil Shute. It was directed by Irving Pichel.
Heaven Can Wait is a 1943 Technicolor American supernatural comedy film produced and directed by Ernst Lubitsch. The screenplay was by Samson Raphaelson based on the play Birthday by Ladislaus Bus-Fekete. The music score was by Alfred Newman and the cinematography by Edward Cronjager.
Edgar Montilion "Monty" Woolley was an American film and theater actor. At the age of 50, he achieved a measure of stardom for his role in the 1939 stage play The Man Who Came to Dinner and its 1942 film adaptation. His distinctive white beard was his trademark and he was affectionately known as "The Beard."
Holy matrimony is a phrase used to describe Christian marriage. It may also refer to:
Whitner Nutting Bissell was an American character actor.
Samuel Laird Cregar was an American stage and film actor. Cregar was best known for his villainous performances in films such as I Wake Up Screaming (1941) and The Lodger (1944).
Franklin Pangborn was an American comedic character actor famous for playing small but memorable roles with comic flair. He appeared in many Preston Sturges movies as well as the W. C. Fields films International House, The Bank Dick, and Never Give a Sucker an Even Break. For his contributions to motion pictures, he received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1500 Vine Street posthumously on February 8, 1960.
Nunnally Hunter Johnson was an American screenwriter, film director, producer and playwright. As a filmmaker, he wrote the screenplays to more than fifty films in a career that spanned from 1927 to 1967. He also produced more than half of the films he wrote scripts for and directed eight of those movies. In 1940 he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay for The Grapes of Wrath and in 1956, he was nominated for the Directors Guild of America Award for Outstanding Directing – Feature Film for The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit. Some of his other notable films include Tobacco Road (1941), The Moon Is Down (1943), Casanova Brown (1944), The Keys of the Kingdom (1944), The Woman in the Window (1944), The Mudlark (1950), The Desert Fox: The Story of Rommel (1951), My Cousin Rachel (1952), The Three Faces of Eve (1957), Mr. Hobbs Takes a Vacation (1962), and The Dirty Dozen (1967). As a playwright he wrote the books for several Broadway musicals, including the musical revue Shoot the Works (1931), Arthur Schwartz's Park Avenue (1946), Bob Merrill's Henry, Sweet Henry (1967), and Jule Styne's Darling of the Day (1968). He also wrote the 1943 Broadway play The World's Full of Girls.
Hello, Frisco, Hello is a 1943 American musical film directed by H. Bruce Humberstone and starring Alice Faye, John Payne, Lynn Bari, and Jack Oakie. The film was made in Technicolor and released by 20th Century-Fox. This was one of the last musicals made by Faye for Fox, and in later interviews Faye said it was clear Fox was promoting Betty Grable as her successor. Released during World War II, the film became one of Faye's highest-grossing pictures for Fox.
I Wake Up Screaming is a 1941 film noir. It is based on the novel of the same name by Steve Fisher, adapted by Dwight Taylor. The film stars Betty Grable, Victor Mature and Carole Landis, and features one of Grable's few dramatic roles.
Buried Alive is a 1908 comedy novel by the British writer Arnold Bennett. In 1913 Bennett adapted it as a play The Great Adventure. This later provided the basis for the 1968 musical Darling of the Day.
Irving Pichel was an American actor and film director, who won acclaim both as an actor and director in his Hollywood career.
Hangover Square is a 1945 American film noir directed by John Brahm, based on the 1941 novel Hangover Square by Patrick Hamilton. The screenplay was written by Barré Lyndon, who made a number of changes to the novel, including transforming George Harvey Bone into a classical composer-pianist and filming the story as a turn-of-the-20th-century period piece.
The Man Who Came to Dinner is a 1942 American screwball comedy film directed by William Keighley, and starring Bette Davis, Ann Sheridan and, as the titular character, Monty Woolley. The screenplay by Julius and Philip G. Epstein is based on the 1939 play The Man Who Came to Dinner by Moss Hart and George S. Kaufman. The supporting cast features Jimmy Durante and Billie Burke.
The Lodger is a 1944 American horror film about Jack the Ripper, based on the 1913 novel of the same name by Marie Belloc Lowndes. It stars Merle Oberon, George Sanders, and Laird Cregar, features Sir Cedric Hardwicke, and was directed by John Brahm from a screenplay by Barré Lyndon.
His Double Life is a 1933 American pre-Code comedy drama film directed by Broadway theatrical impresario and first time film director Arthur Hopkins with directorial input from the experienced William C. deMille, Cecil's older brother. It stars Roland Young and Lillian Gish.
Richard Fraser was a Scottish film, television, and stage actor. He is perhaps best known for his role in the 1945 film The Picture of Dorian Gray.
Ten Gentlemen from West Point is a 1942 American Western film directed by Henry Hathaway and starring George Montgomery, Maureen O'Hara and John Sutton. Its cinematography was nominated for an Academy Award in 1943. George Montgomery replaced John Payne who was suffering an emotional upset at the time. The story tell a fictional story of the first class of the United States Military Academy in the early 1800s.
Washington Story is a 1952 American drama film directed by Robert Pirosh and starring Van Johnson and Patricia Neal. The screenplay concerns a reporter in search of government corruption who falls for a congressman.
References
1 2 3 Mank, Gregory William (2018). Laird Cregar: A Hollywood Tragedy. McFarland.
1 2 "Of Local Origin." New York Times. September 15, 1943.
1 2 Stempel, Tom. Screenwriter: The Life and Times of Nunnally Johnson. San Diego, Calif.: A.S. Barnes, 1980, p. 94.
↑ Kael, Pauline. 5001 Nights at the Movies. New York: Henry Holt, 1991, p. 337.
↑ Johnson, Nora. Flashback: Nora Johnson on Nunnally Johnson. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1979, p. 59.
↑ "Screen News Here and In Hollywood." New York Times. September 23, 1942.
↑ "Michele Morgan Will Star in Mystery Picture at Universal." New York Times. February 3, 1943.
↑ "Grayson, Johnson to Play in 'Tale of Two Sisters'." New York Times. March 30, 1943.
↑ "Fox Renews Option on Ann Rutherford's Contract." New York Times. April 20, 1943.
↑ Pryor, Thomas M. "News and Comment on Various Film Matters." New York Times. May 2, 1943.
↑ "Screen News Here and In Hollywood." New York Times. June 21, 1943.
↑ Leonard, William T. Theatre: Stage to Screen to Television. Metuchen, N.J.: Scarecrow Press, 1981, p. 628.
↑ Crowther, Bosley. "Delightful Union of Monty Woolley and Gracie Fields in 'Holy Matrimony' at Roxy." New York Times. September 16, 1943.
↑ Best American Screenplays. New York: Crown Publishers, 1990, p. 503.
1 2 Thomas, Tony. The Films of the Forties. New York: Carol Publishing Group, 1975, p. 91.
↑ McNab, Geoffrey. Searching for Stars: Stardom and Screen Acting in British Cinema. London: Cassell, 2000, p. 92.
↑ Braun, Eric. Frightening the Horses: Gay Icons of the Cinema. London: Reynolds & Hearn, 2007, p. 1923.
↑ Cowie, Peter. Hollywood 1920-1970. New York: A.S. Barnes, 1977, p. 164.
↑ Vidal, Gore. The Selected Essays of Gore Vidal. Jay Parini, ed. New York: Doubleday, 2008, p. 220.
↑ Meyerson, Harold and Harburg, Ernest. Who Put the Rainbow in the Wizard of Oz?: Yip Harburg, Lyricist. Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan Press, 1993, p. 331.
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